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How do experts read the Bible? Descriptions of literary and historical approaches to biblical interpretation using thinking-aloud protocols Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2024-03-16 Ehud Tsemach
This study describes the thinking strategies and epistemological stances of two Bible experts, who applied a literary and historical interpretive approach, respectively. A thinking-aloud protocols methodology was used as the two scholars read the same biblical story and verbalized their thoughts. The findings reveal intricate relationships between thinking strategies and interpretive approaches. The
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Which characteristics do religious school administrators value in teachers? Experimental evidence from the global Christian school sector Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2024-03-02 Alison Johnson, Matthew H. Lee, Albert Cheng
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‘We don’t have blasphemy laws in England.’ What does this mean for RE? Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2024-03-02
Abstract The protection and regulation of religious expression present complex challenges. Blasphemy laws, which criminalize acts deemed disrespectful to religious beliefs, have been abolished in England, allowing for broader freedom of expression. However, concerns and discussions about blasphemy persist. The Home Secretary, Suella Braverman (2023), has emphasized that there are no blasphemy laws
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“Covid made me think about…” What really matters in RE: a European research project Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Tania ap Siôn, Sandra Cullen, Sonja Danner, Bianca Kappelhoff, Eszter Kodácsy-Simon
Living and working through the challenges of a pandemic offered a unique research opportunity to engage with some core questions about what really matters in Religious Education (RE) in countries across Europe. The What Covid Reveals to Religious Education Specialists research project sought to provide a reflective space for RE specialists, drawn from the board members of the European Forum for Teachers
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The ‘Gospel’ according to Vygotsky? Reflections on the role of symbolic mediation in religious education Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2024-02-05
Abstract As perspectives from the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky have made a substantial impact in the field of educational sciences, they have generated interest even in the field of religious education. To address some possible implications of Vygotskyan perspectives for religious education, this study focuses on Vygotsky’s notion of symbolic mediation, compared with perspectives from theological
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Death knell or revival? Navigating religious education in the age of the non-religious Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2023-11-19 Ruth J. Wareham
England and Wales are now amongst the least religious countries in the world. According to Census data between 2011 and 2021, the number of people identifying as having ‘No Religion’ jumped by over 8 million, from 25% to 37%. Further, although there was a small upward shift in those identifying with minority religions, during the same period, the number of people identifying as Christian dropped by
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Implementing Personal Construct Theory to explore divergent approaches to substantive knowledge in RE Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2023-11-14 Ruth Flanagan
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The future shape of RE in England’s Catholic schools: an initial appraisal of the Religious Education Directory for England and Wales (2023) Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2023-11-14 Sean Whittle
This is an initial appraisal of the Religious Education Directory (RED) which will stipulate the content of Religious Education (RE) in all English Catholic schools from 2025. It will be explained that there is much to commend in the RED. It will certainly be welcomed by many RE teachers and advocates of Catholic education. This is because the RED offers a comprehensive framework extending from Early
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Who studies religion? Towards a better conversation between Theology, Religious Studies, and Religious Education Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2023-11-10 Céline Benoit, Tim Hutchings
This paper calls for better integration between the fields of Theology and Religious Studies (TRS) and Religious Education (RE). Positive reform in RE requires integration between educational theory, policy, and practice, but we argue that the academic study of theology and religion is too often an overlooked partner in these conversations. The separation of TRS from RE is damaging at all levels of
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Muslim converts as a heuristic device for postsecular thinking: agonism as an alternative approach Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2023-11-08 Jeremiah O. A. Olusola
The public resurgence of religious adherence in the West remains one of the defining qualities of this century. If secularisation theory can be understood to articulate the inevitable secularisation of post-enlightenment European societies, religious converts may be understood to epitomise some of the theory’s failings. Through a narrative-ethnographic investigation into the identity configurations
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Religion and worldviews education and the paradox of inclusivity Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2023-11-02 Daniel Moulin
Paradoxes of inclusivity occur when attempts at inclusivity clash with the exclusive claims of some of the positions they seek to accommodate. In this article I identify and consider how such a paradox manifests in multi-faith religious education pedagogies—what I call the ‘paradox of interreligious inclusivity’ or ‘PIRI’, for short. After presenting some relevant and illuminating examples, I consider
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Voices of young people in the Synod Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2023-10-31 Stephen J. McKinney
The absence of young people in Catholic churches in many parts of the world, especially in the more economically advanced countries, is a cause for great anxiety within Catholic communities. This is expressed in relevant research literature and the three recent synodal syntheses of England and Wales, Ireland and Scotland. This article explores the key concept of synodality, some of the research on
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After religious education: lessons from continental pedagogy Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2023-10-28 David Lewin
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Science religion encounters, epistemic trespass, neighbourliness and overlapping domains: theorisation and quantitative evidence of extent Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2023-10-28 Robert A. Bowie, Rosanne Aantjes, Mary Woolley, Sabina Hulbert, Caroline Thomas, Lynn Revell, John-Paul Riordan
This study advances a concept of science religion encounter (SRE), with preliminary theorisation and shares findings on the extent and nature of such encounters reported by secondary religious education and science teachers. SREs are interdisciplinary engagements in classrooms involving subject knowledge from more than one subject. The researchers hypothesised they may arise unexpectedly, when a pupil
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Personal worldviews: lessons from James Fowler Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2023-10-24 Mark Plater
The 2018 Religious Education Council of England and Wales’ review of Religious Education proposes that the subject should be reframed as Religion & Worldviews. Although follow-up studies have explored this idea in some depth, comparatively little thought has been given to the exploration of personal worldviews. This paper explores James Fowler’s work on Faith Development and proposes that this and
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English RE: under pressure? Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2023-10-24 Paul Smalley
This paper will examine four potential areas of pressure to RE in England in the 2020s: Academisation—and the structural issues arising from ever greater numbers of schools being outside local authority control; the alleged secularisation of the curriculum through the Worldviews Paradigm; the financial situation of Standard Advisory Councils on Religious Education in England; and the teacher recruitment
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Varying curricular responses to children’s existential questions in RE syllabi from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Bavaria and Berlin-Brandenburg Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2023-09-21 Karin Sporre
In which ways do curricula recognize existential questions of compulsory school students, and what direction is given regarding how to address them? By asking these two questions, this study analyses syllabi for the school subject of religion education and its equivalents in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, and in the two German regions of Bavaria and Berlin-Brandenburg. The study forms part of a research
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The impact of institutional context on research in religious education: results from an international comparative study Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2023-08-30 Ulrich Riegel, Martin Rothgangel
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Spirituality’s effect on academic resilience among race and ethnicity groups Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2023-08-17 Marcia Theresa Caton, Pamela Watters
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Relationships between religion, moral foundations, and environmentalism in young adult Catholics Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2023-07-20 Sebastian Binyamin Skalski-Bednarz, Karol Konaszewski, Loren L. Toussaint, Anna Kwiatkowska, Janusz Surzykiewicz
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Spirituality as Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural education (SMSC). Using Julia Kristeva to rethink a spirituality of education Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2023-07-11 Kevin O’Donnell
Spirituality is impossible to define, but numerous, common themes can be discerned. I suggest a model of spirituality based upon the oeuvre of Julia Kristeva, the Bulgarian/French philosopher, semiologist, and psychoanalyst. She is an atheist who has a great respect for belief. Her therapeutic work reveals compassion and a desire for the creation of a safe, psychic space between analyst and client
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Religiosity as a factor of social-emotional resilience and personal growth during the COVID-19 pandemic in Croatian adolescents Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2023-05-03 Ana Thea Filipović, Stanko Rihtar
The coronavirus pandemic and measures to protect against the spread of infection have had a specific effect on individual age groups. This research is focused on adolescents (from 13 to 19 years old) because young people at that age are already going through a developmental crisis, which is further intensified by pandemic circumstances. The survey, conducted in Croatia from December 2020 to February
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Theory and practical experience as two sides of a coin Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2023-03-07 Angela Kaupp
Students often complain that the content of their studies is not practice-oriented enough because they do not recognize the importance of theory. This theory–practice problem has long been discussed in teacher education. Explicit research on religious education (RE) is only just beginning. This article tries to evince some connectors between theory and practice at the university level by means of a
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Testing the Moral Foundations Questionnaire within a Muslim society: a study among young adults in Pakistan Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2023-03-01 Nafees Akhtar, Leslie J. Francis, Andrew Village, Alison B. Sailer, Syeda Salma Hasan, Ursula McKenna
This paper examines the psychometric properties of the 30-item Moral Foundations Questionnaire among a sample of 370 young adults between the ages of 18 and 26 years who were born in Punjab and who had lived there since their birth. Initial analyses did not support the internal consistency reliability of the five scales of moral predispositions proposed by this measure. Exploratory factor analysis
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Non-denominational RE teaching based on a Christian ethical heritage: the Swedish case Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2023-03-01 Olof Franck
This article discusses whether there is a contradiction in prescribing a religious, more specifically a Christian, tradition as the ethical basis for a teaching that is prescribed to be non-denominational. In the Swedish curriculum, the ethics borne by a Christian tradition and Western humanism are used as a platform for the school's teaching at the same time as this is not allowed to be of a denominational
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Who was Barabbas?: confronting an obstacle for Christian–Jewish relations in religious education Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2023-01-27 Maurice Ryan
Barabbas has a small role in the Gospels, but his presence influences the way the Christian story has been told and received over the centuries. While he is mentioned in all four Gospels during the account of Jesus’ Roman trial, he never appears “on-stage” in the Gospels. His main purpose is to exculpate the Romans of responsibility for the killing of Jesus of Nazareth, and to shift the blame onto
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Religious education and social justice: reflections on an approach to teaching religious education Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2022-11-23 Patricia Hannam, Christopher May
This paper examines the possible relationship between religious education and social justice. A consideration of what it is that education in the public sphere should seek to achieve, in a normative sense, is followed by an explanation of how we conceptualise social justice in this paper. This leads us to be able to explain why the relationship between teacher and child or young person is significant
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Is there a place for Bildung in preparing Religious Education teachers to support and promote epistemic justice in their classrooms? Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2022-11-18 Alexis Stones, Jo Fraser-Pearce
This article draws on an empirical research project in which we explore the roles and understandings of knowledge in Religious Education (RE). Plural understandings of knowledge in schools (and society) lead us to concerns about the relationships between knowledge and social justice. We define epistemic literacy as the capability to recognise, and critically use, different types of knowledge. We also
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Decolonising the teaching of Jesus in English primary schools Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2022-11-15 Justine Ball
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Religion, schooling and conflicting nationalisms: Educational perspectives from Northern Ireland Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2022-11-15 Norman Richardson
To what extent do teachers’ sense of their religious, cultural and national identity impact on their attitudes and approaches to the teaching of religion in publicly funded schools in Northern Ireland? In a context where schooling remains largely separate according to perceived religious identity, can religious education contribute positively to the peace process in a society emerging from conflict
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Social justice and care for the world – adopting a critical view in religious education Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2022-11-12 Imran Mogra
Maktab education serves many purposes. It provides the substantive knowledge thought to be compulsory for Muslim pupils. Its functional role is to enable them, through varied learning processes, to embody elements of their faith and live as Muslims. Hitherto, systematic attention to curricula in primary maktab education has been rare. This ground-breaking research makes an original contribution to
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Climate, social justice and an education in power Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2022-11-08 Kate Christopher
The argument is put forward that for pupils in Religion and Worldviews to have an understanding of the existential crisis we now find ourselves in, the curriculum must offer a deliberate analysis of power, whether power over people or the natural world. This call is supported by liberal educational thinking. A liberal education approach is presented as a model geared towards knowledge and understanding
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‘…and yet there’s still no peace’ Catholic Indigenous Residential Schools in Canada Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2022-10-29 Stephen J. McKinney
Pope Francis met representatives of the Indigenous peoples of Canada in Rome in April 2022 and in Canada in July 2022. At these meetings he offered sincere apologies for the ways in which the Catholic Church had colluded with the strategy of cultural assimilation of the Indigenous people in Canada. This was especially abhorrent in the residential schools, operated by the Catholic Church (and other
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Why it is time to embrace non-confessional RE in Catholic schools: some reflections from the English context Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2022-10-27 Sean Whittle
This article presents an analysis of why advocates of RE in English Catholic schools have managed to avoid seriously engaging with confessional Religious Education. The arguments presented here are set against the context of curriculum change in RE with the impending introduction of the Religious Education Directory in England and Wales (in September 2025). In this time of curriculum change and innovation
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The experiences of non-religious children in religious education Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2022-10-27 Anna Strhan, Rachael Shillitoe
There is growing recognition of the need for pupils to have the opportunity to engage with both religious and non-religious worldviews in religious education (RE). This recognition is bound up with issues of social justice and equality, underpinned by a desire to ensure that all young people should have the opportunity ‘to understand the worldviews of others and reflect on their own’ (Commission on
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Analysing metaphorical pebbles in English RE Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2022-10-26 Paul Smalley
This paper is a critical analysis of the use of metaphors in English Religious Education (RE). It is grounded in the educational theory of Anna Sfard (a professor of Mathematics) who has written about learning metaphors, before considering some of the metaphoric language used in English education generally and RE specifically. It will examine carefully at how the metaphors implicit within the Commission
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Reading an Islamic epistemology into research: Muslim converts and contemporary religion in Britain Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2022-10-26 Jeremiah Adebolajo
This paper presents a tentative argument for the application of a unique methodological approach in researching convert Muslims in contemporary Britain. By throwing into relief some of the theoretical limitations of previous studies on the topic, a case is made for a dialectical model of thinking that foregrounds Islamic epistemology and places it into conversation with a critical posture. The article
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Dissenting from heteronormativity: growing sideways in religious education Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2022-10-25 Seán Henry
Tensions across religious and LGBTQ concerns have played out in education for some time. In this paper, I make efforts to respond productively to this context by theorising what it might mean for young people in religious schools to dissent from the heteronormativity of religion in religious education (RE). To do this, I survey perspectives across Jewish, Christian, and Muslim accounts of education
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Religious Education in Zambia: social justice Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2022-09-19 Brendan Carmody
Religious Education has long been part of Zambia’s primary and secondary education curriculum. Though it contains a social justice section, it has been weakly socially transformative. This could be seen to be a major challenge today if Religious Education is to be educational. With a swiftly expanding social situation placing increasing numbers at the margins, it is argued that this frail transformative
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Assessing the affective dimension of religion within Muslim societies: the Sahin–Francis Scale of Attitude toward Islam, short form Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2022-08-04 Leslie J. Francis, Humeyra Guleryuz Erken, Andrew Village
This study developed and tested a Turkish translation of the 23-item Sahin–Francis Scale of Attitude toward Islam (containing six negatively-voiced items) on data provided by 493 participants (191 school students and 302 undergraduate students). Two research questions were tested on these data. First, exploratory factor analyses suggested that negatively-voiced items were not performing well and so
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Towards an ethical-dialogical approach to religious education: a theoretical analysis from the cases of Ireland and England Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2022-07-28 Tarcísio Amorim Carvalho
This article draws on the experiences of Ireland and England, which support different conceptions and practices of religious education (RE), in order to provide a normative framework for the organisation of RE in multicultural states. This analysis consists in an assessment of three conceptions of RE: the liberal conception, which emphasises neutrality and objectivity; the pragmatist conception, which
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Educating Christians in order that strangers become neighbours Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2022-07-26 Mary C Boys
This article approaches questions regarding religious pluralism from the perspective of a religious educator. It argues for the importance of educating both in the particularity of one’s home tradition and for a religiously pluralistic world: It concludes with some recommendations for educating Christians in such a way that the religious “stranger” becomes one’s “neighbour”.
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Islamic Studies in Australian Islamic schools: educator voice Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2022-03-21 Mohamad Abdalla, Dylan Chown, Nadeem Memon
This paper responds to calls for renewal in Islamic schooling and education. In doing so, it provides insight into educators’ views on Islamic Studies (IS) in five Australian Islamic schools, with a focus on senior years (years 10, 11 and 12). The study offers a ‘dialogic alternative’ of ‘speaking with’ rather than ‘speaking for’ educators in Islamic educational research, planning, and renewal within
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Enhancing informed empathy as a key to promoting social justice in religious education classes Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2022-02-14 Anuleena Kimanen
In the field of education concerning cultural diversity it has been recognized as vital to address justice in social structures. Although justifications for religious education in non-confessional contexts are heavily based on religious diversity, their advocates have paid little attention to justice and power relations. In this article, I analyse observations of five observed classroom activities
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Recontextualisation and the search for relevance: a double-edged sword? Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2022-02-14 Adrian Lacey, Richard Rymarz, Margaret Waldeck
Students in Australian Catholic schools live in a multi-cultural and multi-faith society where pluralisation, de-traditionalisation and individualisation are becoming increasingly prevalent. Given this context, religious education (RE) teachers face the challenge of implementing a pedagogical approach that is both culturally plausible and explicitly engages with the Catholic faith tradition. A recontextualising
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Christians and the Jewish Passover seder: Christian educational responses to a Jewish celebration Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2022-02-11 Maurice Ryan
The Jewish Passover seder meal is one of the central celebrations for Jews. The commemoration of the Exodus annually celebrated in this ritual meal has attracted the attention of Christians in recent years who seek to replicate the experience of Jesus of Nazareth in his Last Supper in Jerusalem. However, the practice of a "Christian seder" has been criticised on historical, theological and cultural
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The effects of religious education on prodemocratic positions in the face of the right-wing populism in Poland: Theoretical analysis and clues for educational practices Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2022-02-10 Mariusz Chrostowski
The Right-wing populism in Poland faces multiple challenges with respect to Religious Education. This is a complex issue, given it is not only about school education supporting pro-democratic positions in the modern generation of students, but also the fact that today’s populists have participated in long-term and complex educational processes of a similar nature. In this sense, the aim of this article
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A practitioner's reflection upon the spiritual formation of teachers: the wisdom of Evelyn Underhill Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2022-01-25 Wrigley-Carr, Robyn
The spiritual formation of teachers in Church-based schools is of great importance but doesn't always receive the attention it deserves. In the 1920s and 30s, the British writer in spirituality, Evelyn Underhill (1875–1941), gave three Addresses to teachers and one lecture at Oxford University, discussing the teacher’s spiritual life, and the importance of modelling spiritual vitality to students.
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Interdisciplinary perspective-taking within argumentation: students’ strategies across science and religious education Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2021-12-23 Fancourt, Nigel, Guilfoyle, Liam
The importance of developing students’ argumentation skills is well established across the curriculum: students should grasp how claims are made and supported in different disciplines. One challenge is to follow and thereby agree with or critique the arguments of others, which requires perspective-taking, in tracing these other reasons and reasoning. This challenge is increased when disciplines construct
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Religious education syllabus development and the need for education theory Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2021-10-28 Hannam, Patricia
Religious education in England is experiencing change of ‘spring tide’ proportions during the third decade of the twenty-first century. This paper offers a flavour of aspects of education theory informing the development of a locally agreed syllabus in the English context. After offering some background contextual information, the paper proceeds to demonstrate some implications of the absence of education
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Enabling teachers to find their voices as leaders in the religion and worldviews community Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2021-10-22 Wright, Kathryn, Ball, Justine, Clinton, Claire, Moss, Fiona, Pawson, Ed, Whittle, Sean
We present the process, collaborative management, and impact of a pilot leadership programme created to help teachers of Religion and Worldviews (R&W) (We are using the phrase ‘religion and worldviews’ to reflect a change in approach advocated in the Commission on RE (2018). We use the abbreviation R&W throughout. We acknowledge and accept that many are using the phrase ‘religious education’ or ‘RE’
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Some pupils should know better (because there is better knowledge than opinion). Interim findings from an empirical study of pupils’ and teachers’ understandings of knowledge and big questions in Religious Education Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2021-10-22 Stones, Alexis, Fraser-Pearce, Jo
In this paper, we draw on interim findings of our research project on Religious Education (RE), knowledge and big questions. We have found Miranda Fricker’s concept of epistemic injustice useful in our analysis—that is, the notion that a person can be wronged “specifically in their capacity as a knower (Fricker 2007, 1). In interviews with Key Stage 3 pupils (aged 12–14) we found that for many pupils
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Questions open to infinity and the legitimacy of wonder in university curricula Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2021-10-22 Bowie, Robert A., Norman, Ralph
Drawing on the work of prominent atheists and theists, this article argues that any genuinely comprehensive vision of education should include space on the curriculum for subjects such as Theology. Theology is an example of a subject which pushes questioning to infinity, thereby allowing for insight, potential discovery and wonder. The article identifies problems in education systems framed by narrow
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Why is it time to stop referring to ‘Catholic Religious Education’? Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2021-10-15 Whittle, Sean
It is still surprisingly common to hear advocates of Catholic education refer to ‘Catholic’ Religious Education. This article will identify the issues bound up with the concept of ‘Catholic Religious Education’. It will be argued that at the very least using this concept is akin to a category mistake, and at worst it skews our understanding of Religious Education in Catholic schools and as such inevitably
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Beyond belief? Pre-service teachers’ perspectives on teaching RE in Ireland Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2021-10-15 Kieran, Patricia, Mullally, Aiveen
This article overviews the contemporary context for teaching Religious Education (RE) in Ireland and profiles changing religious demographics in an increasingly secular context. It presents the findings of a two-year mixed-methods study undertaken in two third-level Catholic colleges in Ireland, investigating four hundred third-level Initial Teacher Education (ITE) students’ perceptions of the religiously
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Mary, woman of faith and displaced person: insights for Catholic schools Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2021-10-15 McKinney, Stephen J.
Catholic schools share in the preferential option for the poor that is an essential part of following Jesus and the mission of the Church. Catholic schools in many parts of the world have an historical and contemporary mission for the care and education of the poor. This article uses key passages from the Gospels of Luke and Matthew to illustrate that Mary can be understood as an exemplar of God’s
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Synoptic vision: some research priorities for RE Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2021-10-15 Gates, Brian
Religious Education (RE) is more than a single curriculum subject and research should give more attention to that fact. Drawing on a lifetime’s engagement with RE, this article identifies ten topics that deserve urgent pursuit if the interests of children and young people are to be more effectively understood and addressed. They begin with a cluster on the nature and extent of RE provision within both
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Learnings from the Adult Religious Education and Faith Development (AREFD) project for initial teacher education of religious educators Journal of Religious Education Pub Date : 2021-09-25 Sweetman, Bernadette
Since October 2018, researchers at the Mater Dei Centre for Catholic Education at Dublin City University have been engaged in the Adult Religious Education and Faith Development (AREFD) project. The overarching aim of the project was to facilitate a re-energising of adult religious education and faith development in Ireland. Working amongst local faith communities with an academic research focus, an